Tressel Billboard: Not Our Fault

Everyone assumed that because it showed up on I-94 somewhat near Ann Arbor (it's close to the airport) that Michigan fans were responsible for it. But if you know anything about Paul Reiser-penned billboards in Michigan you know that Michigan State fans love 'em. Example one:

At this point we cannot act like we have been there because we haven't.

Example two:

It's almost as if there's some billboard company with spare inventory run by Spartan Paul Reiser. Reader Section 1 finds SPR:

The idea actually came from a Michigan State alum, who also happens to be the local sales manager for CBS Outdoor advertising.

About 10-12 of the boards are expected to be put up around the state, most with sponsor names on them.

Two are already in place -- on northbound I-75, north of I-94, and another in Grand Rapids. There's also one coming to the Lansing area, and the rest will be located in metro-Detroit.

"I have several State alumni and State fans that work for me," said Tom Carroll, vice president of the Michigan Region for CBS Outdoor. "The billboard is our response to Michigan State getting snubbed."

Section 1 went so far as to call up Bob Brown, another Michigan State guy who used the close-your-eyes-and-don't-think-of-Iowa billboard to express "frustration," and ask him who was behind the billboards. They refused to answer, saying only that the buyer was anonymous. Why they'd be so reticent now when they'd embraced their role as the state's key purveyor of stupid sports-themed billboards is unknown. It's probably not the sudden onset of shame.

Unfortunately for Spartan Paul Reiser, his kid sold him out. An emailer relates:

I put a pic of the billboard up on my Facebook page, and got a response from a [high school] classmate who is a Facebook friend of mine – Brad Carroll. He said his dad had created the billboard, and had shown him a mock up a couple weeks earlier. At the time I thought nothing of it, other than that his dad was a Michigan fan.

In the aftermath of the Section 1 post the emailer deduces that Brad is Tom Carroll's son. The googles confirm by turning up a CBS Outdoor Detroit Facebook page that only people with the last name Carroll have bothered to like things on, one of whom is a Brad who matches the biographical information elided above. QED.

As per usual, Michigan State fans are responsible for the stupid billboards. Stay your wakizashi and carefully tell the guy with the katana to go get some ice cream: your honor is restored.

Comme on faict son lict, on le treuve, (as one makes one's bed, so one finds it.)

[c late 15th-cent. Fr.]

As far as "making my own bed and lying in it," I am always willing to do that. I can't think of much of anything I've posted on this blog by way of a theory, a quote, a report, etc., that wasn't shown to be true and accurate.

But this was today's lesson; often misattributed Mark Twain, the quote actually comes from Spurgeon, when Twain was just 23:

It is well said in the old proverb, ‘a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on’.

Do you understand that the world does not revolve around you and your do whatever it takes, ruin as many people's lives, so long as you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way, just so long so you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way?

I love this post. Great work to Section 1 and Brian..

EDIT: You guys that piss and moan about having to read this billboard/MGoBoard shit need to lighten up. I don't mind the trolling tag considering the people taking this too seriously will also be the people taking fake points too seriously.

EDIT: You guys that piss and moan about having to read this billboard/MGoBoard shit need to lighten up. Trolling? I'm having fun at the expense of some Spartans, although it's not that I care about fake points.

this by posting, but this is no big deal. If anyone wants to rent a billboard and call a liar a liar, feel free, whatever your preference of targets is. Tre$$ell gets a fair hearing with the NCAA, and he gets to be heard in meetings with his superiors. He does not get one in a billboard indictment. I wouldn't pay for that sort of bashing if I were wealthy enough to afford the dalliance.

Your post could have had some validity, then you used "Tre$$ell" and it instantly and automatically became trite. "Tre$$ell", "Dumbtonio", etc. are like "Dick Rod" and "cHoke". They are not clever, they are not funny, they are stupid. Don't use them.

If anyone else want to get in on putting up the same billboard just to piss off Section 1 and the Michigan fans who were so offended by the thought that this was done by a Michigan fan, feel free to let me know.

Off-topic: Lisa Byington (of WLNS Lansing), who is in that video, is far from perfect as a sports broadcaster, but I'm still surprised that she hasn't moved on to a bigger stage (for example, Tulsa or Syracuse) than Lansing.

I'm more interested in Sparty's billboard messages from 2008. I had never seen those before. Heh. And they wonder why the little brother label fits them so well.

Who loses 6 straight games to a rival and then puts up a billboard taunting the rival when they finally beat them for the first time that decade? And then to throw Toledo in there?

Do you know how many times I've seen crappy teams beat up on MSU over the years? I've seen them lose to Central 3 times. I've seen them lose to Rutgers 3 times. I've seen them get beat by under .500 Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Kansas. I watched a GOD awful Indiana team beat the crap out of them in East Lansing several years back. Do you know how many billboards we would have had to build just to sink to that level?

And really? Taunting us over our 34 year bowl streak coming to an end? Do you know MSU's longest bowl streak in school history? 4 years.

The reason Section 1's original post was on the boards and not the diaries is because I knocked it down there. My explanation:

Thanks for the research Section 1. If you can find out who actually was behind it that might be diary-worthy. However I think what you have right now isn't a smoking gun, just a phone call and a lot of editorial around it.

It's worth being on the board. But like I said, find out who actually put it up and leave a paper trail.

The Facebook snooping is that paper trail, so I stand by my editorial decision. But I wanted to put that out there for those of you now reading this for the first time who might have read it before had I not bounced it from the diaries.

Admission of bias: Personally I'm with the "don't give a damn" crowd. If Northwestern or Stanford calls to say "I'm disappointed ol' chap; that was quite against our standards," we can tell them our kid brother did it, but neither the target nor the national audience see the board as embarrassing -- they think all rivalry ribbing is cool.

If the original post is indeed true, and I believe it is, I am glad a Michigan Fan wasn't responsible for the billboard. Just goes to show how having a major inferiority complex makes your team look tacky, tasteless and tormented. Hope we don't incur in this sort of behavior any time soon. Our Team should always do the real talking on the field.

If we wanted to put up a billboard, at least it would have to be more clever, right?
(your suggestion goes here)

"liar, liar, vest on fire" - to attribute that to Paul Reiser is cruel to Reiser. And Reiser has turned in some great performances, if you recall "Aliens". He almost got Ripley with one of those Alien things, you know, but then she kicked some ass. And Newt, too, don't forget Newt.

Anyhow, glad that this stupid thing is over, and that if anyone ever gives us credit for something so dumb and puerile, we can pass the buck to where it usually belongs: Sparty.
This is particularly useful to me as some relatives are Buckeyes, and some Spartans (neither by blood, I should point out).